Blog post #3

Sappho

6. (Fr. 31)

He seems to me to be equal to the gods,

that man who sits across from you

and listens close and hand

to your sweet voice

and lovely laughter. Truly it sets

my heart to pounding in my breast,

for the moment I glance at you, I can

no longer speak;

my tongue grows numb; at once a subtle

fire runs stealthily beneath my skin;

my eyes see nothing, my ears

ring and buzz,

the sweat pours down, a trembling

seizes the whole of me, I turn paler

than grass, and I seem to myself

not far from dying.

But everything can be endured, because…

Carson claims that Sappho’s lyrics have two different sides of love; sweet and bitter. Carson says that love starts with happy and sweet feeling, but “most love ends badly” (Carson 4). In the beginning of the fragment, Sappho uses words such as “sweet voice, lovely laughter, and pounding heart”. She describes positive and bright side of love in first two paragraphs. However, she begins to use words such as “numb, paler, and dying” in next two paragraphs. The last two paragraphs depict sad and dark side of love, and they foreshadow that love will eventually end up badly. In Sappho’s lyrics, she uses “Sweetbitter eros” to give dynamic transition from positive to negative emotion.

Theognis

26. (Lines 1353-56)

Bitter and sweet, alluring and tormenting:

Such, till it be fulfilled, Kyrnos, is love to the young

for if one finds fulfillment, it proves sweet; but if,

pursuing,

one fails of fulfillment, then of all things it is most painful.

Carson’s bittersweet idea can be applied to Theognis’s lyrics. Theognis also indicates two different sides of love. He states words that have opposite meanings such as “Bitter and sweet, alluring and tormenting” in the first sentence. This sentence represents love has positive and negative sides. It seems like love has positive and negative sides evenly. However, the following sentences emphasize more on “failure of love” than “pursuit of love”. He says, “if one finds fulfillment, it proves sweet”. Pursuit of love will give a sweet feeling of love. But to the contrary, failure of love will give the most painful. He uses a superlative word to highlight that failure of love is the worst thing. Like Sappho, Theognis also uses “Sweetbitter eros” to offer dynamic paradox, and he emphasizes that bitter side of love is stronger than sweet side.